


All I Want for Christmas (Is to Save the World Again)

by AuroraNova



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Christmas, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-08 06:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12858954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraNova/pseuds/AuroraNova
Summary: Jack was having a quiet Christmas at home... until Thor showed up.





	All I Want for Christmas (Is to Save the World Again)

It’d been almost six months since the terrible day when Jack got a phone call from his dad, who was so choked up he could barely get out the words, “Your mom’s gone, son.” Fucking semi truck driver should’ve pulled over when he couldn’t stay awake. That bastard was spending Christmas in jail, but he’d be out soon and Mom was never coming back.

Dad asked if he could come spend Christmas at Jack’s, which of course he was welcome to with the understanding that there was always a chance Jack wouldn’t be home. No doubt Dad didn’t want to be surrounded by all the years of memories, because it would hurt too much. Jack and his father were enough alike that this didn’t have to be stated. Jack missed his mom, too.

Then Jack realized it was also Daniel’s first Christmas since Sha’re died. Daniel claimed not to care very much about Christmas, but his first Christmas back on Earth after Abydos, he’d talked fondly of how strange Sha’re would find the holiday traditions, so he’d be thinking about her for sure. Therefore, Jack called his dad a couple weeks before Christmas.

“Hey Dad? What do you think of inviting my friend Daniel for Christmas dinner?”

“From your team?”

“Yeah. It’s his first Christmas since his wife died, too, and he doesn’t have family.”

No hesitation on Dad’s part. “Invite him.”

It took a bit of cajoling and a lot of promising that Daniel wouldn’t be intruding, but Daniel agreed to join them and said he’d bring eggnog.

Everything about this Christmas was low-key. Jack didn’t put up a tree, because Charlie had loved decorating Christmas trees and it hurt too damn much even thinking of putting one up without him. Neither he nor Dad had bought gingerbread, since Mom made her grandmother’s recipe every Christmas and there was no replacing her or the homemade gingerbread, and there was no use in trying.

A simple meal suited them. Jack put a ham in early Christmas morning, the potatoes were on the stove, and the green beans were ready to go in as well. For dessert he’d bought an apple pie. No point in pretending this was a normal Christmas for anyone.

* * *

 

Before Daniel arrived, Jack thought it best to warn Dad, “I doubt Daniel will want to talk about Sha’re. His wife.”

“Unusual name.”

“She was Egyptian.” This wasn’t entirely a lie. Her ancestors had been kidnapped from Egypt.

“What happened to her?” asked Dad.

“A fire.” Again, not completely false. A staff blast was a kind of fireball.

Dad nodded. “Alright. Sometimes words aren’t enough, anyway.”

That was almost heresy to Daniel, but where Sha’re was concerned it was probably close to the truth. Anyway, it wasn’t like he could say a whole lot in front of Dad.

When the doorbell rang, Jack found Daniel holding eggnog and bourbon. “Merry Christmas, Jack.”

“Backatcha. Come on in. Daniel, Dad. Dad, Daniel.”

While Jack stashed the eggnog in the fridge, the two of them shook hands. “Pleasure to meet you, Mr. O’Neill.”

“Oh, call me Tom. Glad you could join us.”

“Thank you for having me. Dinner smells delicious,” said Daniel.

“Jack’s got enough ham to feed eight at least.”

“I want to have leftovers.” It was always good to have leftovers in the freezer after, say, barely escaping with his life again.

“So, you’re on Jack’s team?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re…”

“A linguist with the Air Force.” Daniel usually left out that he was an archaeologist as well, because that part was trickier to explain.

“Huh. They need a lot of linguists doing deep space radar telemetry?”

Daniel was smooth and nonchalant. “It’s an international project.”

“Uh-huh. And surprisingly dangerous.” Dad made that remark with a pointed look at Jack’s forearm, which still sported stitches from his latest knife fight. “It’s almost like deep space radar telemetry is a cover story.”

“Don’t mind Dad,” Jack told Daniel. “He’s just making it clear that he’s not convinced.”

“I’m convinced alright. I’m convinced you’re not doing deep space radar telemetry, and I’m convinced the Air Force needs better cover stories.”

“I’ll be sure to tell my CO,” replied Jack, reaching for his potholders. He wanted to check the ham.

“Done?” Dad asked.

“Yeah, we’re good.” He turned off the stove, put the green beans in boiling water, and set a timer. Jack would never say he was a great cook, but he was adequate as long as he kept everything simple. The problem was more that he didn’t especially enjoy cooking for only himself.

Daniel asked, “Can I help?”

“Get us water?” He’d forgotten to fill the glasses before.

Dad, meanwhile, was dumping two cans of pineapple chunks in a bowl. As far as he was concerned, it wasn’t a ham dinner without generous amounts of pineapple. Mom always teased him about that, so Jack and his dad shared a brief glance of wordless grief.

In a few minutes the green beans were cooked, the potatoes were mashed, and the ham was carved. Daniel eyed the ham and remarked, “You weren’t kidding about leftovers.”

“I was already cooking ham. Why not get extra meals from it?”

“Do they even sell larger ones?”

“I got the biggest one in the store.” No point in messing around, he figured.

It was a good ham, too. The whole dinner was a hit, and Jack felt pretty good about his admittedly rusty kitchen abilities.

Dad realized he had a golden opportunity to tell one of his favorite Christmas stories to a fresh audience. So, in between bites of pineapple with a side of ham, he regaled Daniel with the tale of Jack’s Christmas sled.

“The Christmas Jack was seven, he wanted a new sled,” he began.

“Do we have to hear this story?” asked Jack, even though he already knew the answer. A protest was expected.

“Yes. Not just any old sled, mind you. He wanted a Flexible Flyer, wanted it so badly it was the only thing he asked for that year. That was the year he figured out Santa wasn’t real, so he left reminder notes around the house for his mom and I to find.”

“I’ve never understood why parents tell their children Santa is real,” said Daniel.

“Your parents didn’t?” asked Jack.

“No, and I don’t feel I missed anything.”

Dad wasn’t going to be distracted from his story. “It’s fun, that’s why. Now, that was an unusually warm December. We got Jack his Flexible Flyer. Hell of a time hiding in where he wouldn’t see it, too. I ended up stashing it in the attic until after he went to bed on Christmas Eve.”

“I imagine he was happy on Christmas morning.”

“Happy doesn’t begin to cover it. There was just one problem: we didn’t have any snow. Didn’t stop Jack, though.”

Now Daniel was intrigued. “Oh?”

“Nope. He went outside to play in the backyard with a couple other toys we got him. We had a bit of a hill in the backyard, and next thing we know, Jack’s out there dumping buckets of water down the hill. After every bucket he poked the ground. I went out and asked what he was doing, and he told me, ‘Making mud to use my sled. I think I need more water.’”

Okay, his early problem-solving efforts left a bit to be desired, but once his strategies were refined, it was just this kind of thinking which made Jack good at getting out of sticky situations and had kept him alive thus far, no small feat on SG-1.

* * *

 

Dinner had been eaten, the leftovers were in the fridge, and Jack was bringing the eggnog to the table when he found himself falling to the floor. Looking up, it was clear he wasn’t in his kitchen anymore. And the room looked familiar.

“Thor?”

The Asgard entered the room while Jack got up. “Greetings,” he said.

“You’ve got to stop doing this without warning.”

“It’s very disorienting,” agreed Daniel.

“I could not reach you via the communicator I left in your possession.”

“The Air Force doesn’t let me take alien phones home. There’s someone on duty who could answer.”

“The Asgard prefer to deal with known individuals such as yourself and Dr. Jackson.”

That was a compliment, Jack figured.

“Jack?” asked Dad.

Shit. No way he could explain this with anything other than the truth. He looked to Daniel, who gave him a little shrug. No help there. Okay then, the truth it was. “Dad, meet Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. He stops by our galaxy sometimes. Thor, my dad, Tom O’Neill.”

Thor nodded his head slightly. “Greetings.”

“Uh, hi,” replied Dad.

“I felt it safer to transport you as well, as we are at the maximum edge of transporter range and you were very close to O'Neill, making it difficult to differentiate.” Turning back to Jack and Daniel, Thor said, “We have no time for pleasantries. Two System Lords are attempting to ‘call our bluff’ regarding the Protected Planets Treaty.”

“Of course they are,” said Jack. “They couldn’t let me have two holidays in a row where nothing happened.”

Dad connected the dots and said, “I knew you didn’t sound sick on the Fourth.”

Yes, the plan had been to meet Dad at the cabin and yes, Jack had been busy organizing Carter’s rescue at the time. He barely managed a thirty-second call to Dad and that only while he scarfed down a sandwich. Good news was, they successfully rescued Carter well before she was due to be burned at the stake as a witch.

Moving to more pressing matters, Jack asked Thor, “What are the snakes up to this time?”

“One of our informants has learned that Heru’ur and Kebechet are working together in an attempt to enslave the population of your homeworld.”

“Keb-who?” asked Jack.

Daniel piped up with an explanation, albeit not one that helped Jack at all. “Kebechet, goddess of freshness and purification. I hadn’t realized she was considered a System Lord.”

“New snake?”

“We haven’t encountered her yet.”

Thor continued his warning. “We believe they have created a small weapon, possibly hidden in an artifact or machine which one of your teams would take back to Earth through the stargate. Once activated, it would be capable of immediately disabling all individuals within an unknown radius.”

“So the iris was left open,” concluded Jack. “They’re hiding on a planet one of the gate teams is on.”

“That is one aspect of the attack.”

“Artifacts are Daniel’s department,” he said, for Thor’s benefit.

The grey guy handed Daniel a small rod. “This is a locator beacon. I will transport you directly to your command center. When you are ready to return, align the two halves of the oval.”

“Nothing new comes through the gate,” ordered Jack.

Daniel nodded. “And we’ve got a team that doesn’t know they’re surrounded by Jaffa.”

“Jaffa we don’t want to tip off if we can help it.”

“Right.” Daniel looked at Thor. “I’m ready.”

After Daniel disappeared, Dad said, “Dare I ask where we are?”

“Approximately eleven point two light-years from Earth,” replied Thor.

“Well, that clears everything up,” said Dad. “Huh. I could’ve sworn there wasn’t a chair here before.” He sat anyway.

“There wasn’t,” confirmed Jack.

While Dad examined the chair, Thor went on, “Securing Earth’s stargate is only part of Kebechet and Heru’ur’s plan.”

“Aerial attack?” guessed Jack.

“Of a sort.”

“I do not like how you said that.”

“Acting on the information from our informant, I have tracked the Goa’uld fleet in stealth mode.”

“Much appreciated. Thank your informant for us, will you?”

“I will pass along the message. According to my scans, Kebechet is armed with a device capable of generating an electromagnetic pulse with enough power to disable Earth.”

“The _entire_ Earth?”

“Everything which requires electric components. The stargate would be immune to its effects.”

“Pretty much the entire Earth, defense-wise.” Jack did not like this one bit. “I’m guessing it’s not as simple as blowing up their fleet.”

“Regrettably, we are not able to spare any more ships. I have put one of our colonies at risk by diverting the _Biliskner,_ and I must return as soon as possible.”

Right. Time for Plan B, then. “Your ship can make things quickly, right?”

“Yes. Not on the scale of an entire fleet, however.”

“I’m thinking smaller, like mines. Lots of mines to give them a nasty surprise.”

Thor blinked. “That is possible.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” said Dad, “but are you sure you want to surround the Earth with mines? That sounds like a good way to kill some astronauts.”

He wasn’t exactly wrong, but when it came to making a call between the whole planet definitely being conquered by the Goa’uld or a few astronauts possibly dying at some point in the future, there wasn’t any doubt in Jack’s mind.

“I was thinking the solar system, not the planet,” he said.

Thor came to a decision and started pressing buttons. “We will not use mines as you conceive of them. We will create these.”

Jack studied the hologram which popped up. “Not ringing any bells.”

“We call them riskats.”

“Okay. What’s it do?”

“Two or more riskats create an energy field between them. The more riskats used, the stronger the field and the larger it can become.”

Now he saw where this was going. “Large enough to ensnare a whole fleet?”

“If we work quickly, yes.”

“Then what do we do once we’ve caught them? Can we use this field of riskats to blow them up?”

“Yes.”

“Sweet.”

“We will overload the energy field. It will destroy or disable Kebechet’s fleet. The remaining riskats can then be programmed to self-destruct.”

“This plan has the added benefit of demonstrating the Protected Planets Treaty isn’t entirely a bluff.”

“Correct.”

“Something called a Protected Planets Treaty, which sounds very important, is mostly a _bluff?_ ” Dad looked alarmed. “I know I just learned about this alien invasion business, but that seems bad.”

“Hey, I don’t like it either,” said Jack. “We have to take what we can get. Thor here is actually one of our key allies. Thor, is Kebe-whatever gonna be able to detect these riskats?”

“I do not believe so, if we hide them among the small objects that comprise your solar system’s circumstellar belt.”

Jack thought for a minute. “The Kuiper belt?”

“I am unfamiliar with that term.”

“Lots of icy rocks out past the planets.”

“Yes, we are referring to the same phenomenon.”

Good. “What do you need me to do?”

“For optimal effectiveness, I need detailed scans of the circumstellar disc. I cannot obtain those scans while in stealth mode.”

“You plucked us from Jack’s kitchen,” said Dad.

“Detailed scans of Earth already exist in the _Biliskner’s_ database. My information on the circumstellar disc, while extensive, is not complete. Additionally, I was able to disguise the transport beam as an interstellar ion flare. I cannot do the same for active scans.”

“Okay, how exactly am I getting these scans?” asked Jack.

“In a mid-range shuttle disguised as a Goa’uld pleasure cruiser.”

“You do realize I have no idea how to fly your ships, right?”

“They are simple to operate. A child could do it.”

Jack thought it best not to point out that a race without children probably wasn’t expert on what kids were capable of doing.

“Can’t you fly it remotely?” asked Dad.

“Not without the risk of being discovered.”

“And then destroyed,” finished Jack.

“Correct.”

“Goa’uld pleasure cruiser. Alright, let’s go over Asgard Piloting 101 and hope Daniel gets back soon. He can at least speak Goa’uld if we need to act the part.”

“The shuttle is equipped with a translator,” said Thor.

Somehow, that didn’t make Jack feel much better.

* * *

 

It looked like flying the shuttle wouldn’t be too bad after all. Thor had it programmed to do most of the work on its own. Basically Jack had to press a couple of buttons, get a good distance away from the _Biliskner_ , press a few more buttons, wait for an alarm to sound, press a few more buttons, and then he’d be back on Thor’s ship. Provided, of course, he didn’t get blown up by the Goa’uld in the meantime.

Jack was flying solo because Daniel wasn’t back yet, and he refused to put his dad in danger. This didn’t go over well in Dad’s eyes.

“So I’m just supposed to sit here, twiddling my thumbs and hoping you get back here alive?”

Yes, he was. Jack wasn’t going to claim it’d be easy, but he couldn’t risk the distraction. He tried harkening back to his dad’s Army days. “Would you have taken Gramps on a mission in Korea?” he asked.

Dad frowned. “No.”

“There you go.” He made time for a quick hug. “See you soon.”

“Be safe, son.”

With a nod, he walked into the shuttle and closed the door. Unlike the holographic disguise, on the inside it was pure Asgard, complete with uncomfortable chairs.

“Okay,” he told himself. “Once the forcefield goes up… annnd, we’re off.”

He pressed the right buttons, and the _Biliskner_ quickly disappeared as the shuttle went to hyperspace. It sure would be nice to have one of these babies around.

This little adventure was going to earn him mountains of paperwork, since his dad got beamed onto Thor’s ship. None of this was Jack’s fault, and Dad would keep his mouth shut, but it was still going to be a headache to sort out. Hell, some bureaucrat would probably decide it called for forms which hadn’t even been invented yet.

Hyperspace was boring by himself. He wished he had his yo-yo. The trip didn’t take long, at least, and he dropped out of hyperspace facing a bunch of large snowballs which, as long as Thor’s directions were right, ought to belong to the Kuiper belt.

He pressed the next set of buttons, and one of the screens changed to show something he couldn’t have deciphered if his life depended on it. Apparently Asgard shuttles couldn’t be programmed to run in English, so he had to hope this meant the shuttle was getting that data Thor wanted.

This was supposed to be the part of the Kuiper belt that the Goa’uld fleet would pass through. Jack sure hoped their plan worked, because they didn’t have another back-up plan. Maybe he could get Thor to talk EMP defense with Carter. Yeah, that sounded like a good plan.

He wondered if the Goa’uld knew enough to pick Christmas as a holiday when many people were off work and most SG teams were home, or it was random chance. No way to know.

The shuttle did most of the work for his mission. Really, he was just there to push some buttons. When the alarm went off, signifying enough data had been collected, he poked at the console again and the shuttle went back into hyperspace. So far, so good. It was always a nicer Christmas when nobody was shooting at him.

Dad was obviously relieved when Jack walked out of the shuttle. “Glad you’re back,” he said. Understatement was an O’Neill trait.

“The _Biliskner’s_ computer is calculating optimal placement of the riskats,” said Thor.

“Any word from Daniel?”

“He came back five minutes ago,” said Dad. “He’s downloading something onto a laptop.”

“Comprehensive information on the Asgard language,” explained Thor.

Yeah, bringing back a laptop hoping to get linguistic samples sounded like Daniel, alright. “Merry Christmas to Daniel.”

When they got back to the computer room, Daniel was having the time of his life. “Jack, look at this!”

“What am I looking at?”

“Runes.”

“Right. Runes. Anything in particular I’m supposed to be seeing?”

“The Asgard language has three times the number of runes as historic Norse variations, though of course none of them were identical and I’m not a runologist.”

“Odin taught a simplified version to some people of your world,” said Thor.

Dad’s mouth dropped open. “Wait a second, you mean those aren’t just fairy tales?”

“Long story,” replied Jack. “Short version: not so much gods as aliens. Some good, some bad. Speaking of bad, Daniel, how’s the situation at SGC?”

“Nobody is offworld anymore. We recalled them all via the alpha site so as not to alert the Goa’uld that we were onto them. Colonel Wallach made up a story about a highly contagious virus. All technology and artifacts were left behind, which was very disappointing because SG-8 found some fascinating carved tablets on P9Y-394."

At this point Dad’s eyes grew. “Excuse me, did you say offworld? As in, not on Earth?”

“He did,” said Jack. They were way beyond the point of hiding.

“How?”

Jack stuck to the simplest answer. “Alien tech.”

“Wow.”

“That’s why I can’t always call.”

“Makes sense,” said Dad. “That may be the first thing that’s made sense, actually.”

Daniel came up with a new question for Thor. “Did Idunn invent your cloning technology?”

“Yes.”

Daniel nodded. “Apples that granted eternal youth,” he told Jack.

“Ah. I get it.” Cloning could look like eternal youth.

“Well, I sure don’t,” said Dad.

Thor looked up from his programming. “We are now ready to deploy the riskats.”

“Great.” The sooner, the better, as far as Jack was concerned. “How do we do that?”

“The _Biliskner’s_ computer is coordinating the transport.”

Dad was impressed. “This ship is amazing.”

“Are you in need of food or drink?” asked Thor.

“It does that too?” Dad whistled. “Wow.”

“I could go for some water,” said Jack.

Three glasses of water appeared.

“Thanks.”

Dad picked his up carefully, as though it might be an illusion. “The ship gets water, too?”

This, Jack decided, was one way to distract Dad and Daniel from their first Christmas as widowers. Dad’s mind was being blow constantly, and Daniel was in his linguistic happy place. As long as they kept the Goa’uld from taking over Earth, it was actually shaping up to be a decent evening.

* * *

 

Thor knew what he was doing with these riskats, or the computer did. Whatever. The point was, they worked like a charm. When the entire Goa’uld fleet was in the riskat-mined area, Thor activated the little machines and overloaded them. Within a minute the entire fleet was crushed.

“Most ships are destroyed,” reported Thor, though Jack had gotten that much from the image onscreen. “The remainder are disabled. I am opening a channel.”

His console emitted a small beep. In his most authoritative voice, he proclaimed, “Goa’uld fleet. Attacking Earth or its solar system is a violation of the Protected Planets Treaty. As such, the Asgard High Council is within our right to take any measures we deem necessary for the protection of Earth. You would be wise to remember this in the future.”

He terminated the channel and turned to Jack. “You have once again proven yourself a worthy representative of your race, O’Neill.”

“Thanks.” What else could he say?

“I will return you to your domicile now.”

“Okay. Thanks for everything, Thor.”

“You are welcome.”

Thor put them back down in Jack’s kitchen, where their empty glasses still sat on the table. Daniel picked up the carton of eggnog, which had fallen to the floor. “I’ll get rid of this.”

Dad said, “Bourbon’s still good,” so Jack poured some out while Daniel dumped spoiled eggnog down the sink (after carefully setting down the laptop with his linguistic info, of course). Then they sat and drank.

After a couple sips, Dad said, “That fleet was really coming to conquer Earth?”

“Yep,” said Jack.

“And you’ve fought these Goa’uld before?”

“They’re our main enemy, though they don’t usually go for the whole planet.”

“Damn.”

That pretty much covered it.

They drank in silence for a moment until Dad spoke again. “So that’s what you’re doing? Protecting the planet from aliens, gallivanting around space?”

“Pretty much.”

“I guess the deep space part of your cover story is accurate, then.”

“Yeah.”

“And I can never tell a soul.”

“No. Expect multiple non-disclosure agreements in your future. I’m gonna be doing paperwork until June.”

Dad turned to Daniel. “You speak alien languages?”

“Yes.”

“Damn.” Dad poured more bourbon. “Hell of a Christmas. I was abducted by an alien.”

“Technically,” agreed Jack.

“And alien you know and who likes you.”

“Apparently.”

“Your mom would’ve loved that. The meeting an alien part, not the attacking fleet part. While I was standing there tongue-tied, she’d have offered Thor a piece of her gingerbread, told him she’d be happy to bring him a slice if he’d pop her back down for a minute.”

Jack smiled, even though it hurt to think he’d never see his mom trying to feed someone again. “Yeah, I can see that.”

Daniel swirled bourbon around in his glass. “Sha’re would’ve wanted to make Thor clothes,” he said quietly.

“He could use some,” replied Dad. If he doubted Sha’re had actually been Egyptian, he wisely kept the suspicion to himself.

Thor could’ve gotten rid of Amounet, though to be honest Jack wasn’t sure how well anyone, even someone as strong as Sha’re, could come back from being a Goa’uld host. Maybe death was the best outcome for Sha’re. He would never share this thought with Daniel.

Dad asked, “Is it common for aliens to fly around space naked?”

“Only for the Asgard, as far as we’ve seen.” There had been those people on P8J-290 who only wore clothes after dark, but they weren’t flying around the galaxy. Also, Jack wasn’t about to get into the whole ‘humans live all over the galaxy because the Goa’uld like to kidnap us’ subject with Dad.

“You said gods like Thor were – are – aliens.”

Jack nodded. “Right.”

“All gods?” asked Dad.

And now they came to a subject which caused concern whenever someone talked about making the program public in the next few decades. How would people react to the idea of gods being aliens? Jack sure as hell didn’t know. He barely kept straight which snake belonged to which area of Earth. Fortunately he had an expert at hand. “Daniel?”

“The Norse pantheon is actually Asgard, as you saw. The ancient Egyptian gods were Goa’uld. We know of some Goa’uld who set themselves up as deities in other religions, but as far as we’ve seen they tended to embrace polytheistic faiths.”

“So the capital G God?” asked Dad, who was your classic Easter and Christmas Catholic, or he was now that Mom wasn’t around to bring him to church more often.

Daniel shrugged. “No idea.”

“No way Jesus was a snake,” said Jack. He was about as lapsed a Catholic as they came, but even he could figure out that much.

“Snake?” asked Dad.

“Goa’uld.”

Dad considered this for a couple seconds. “Well, I’m glad we’re not celebrating the birthday of an evil alien.”

“Yeah, that’d have made Christmas Mass awkward for me last year.” Jack had gone solely to make his mom happy, a choice for which he was now very grateful since it ended up being her final Christmas.

“This calls for another drink,” said Dad.

When Dad went to refill his glass Daniel shook his head. “I shouldn’t. I’m driving home.”

“You can bunk with me,” offered Jack. It was already late and dammit, if a man wanted to drown his sorrows on his first Christmas after his wife died, he should be able to. Jack had a king-sized bed and two tired, tipsy men could fit.

After a moment of consideration, Daniel nodded and reached for his glass.

“It’s too bad I can’t tell Ralph about this,” said Dad. “He might finally shut up about all the places he’s been for once.”

Jack’s cousin lived to brag about the vacations his Wall Street salary allowed him to take. Ralph wasn’t well liked by the rest of the family because he was an ass. Daniel’s eyebrows rose up, but he made no comment.

“You can’t tell anybody,” reminded Jack. The point was worth repeating, though he wasn’t really worried about Dad spilling.

“I know. It’d kill your career, even though it’s not your fault Thor picked me up.”

“You’d have seen more than you’re supposed to even if he hadn’t,” said Daniel. “If we disappeared in front of your eyes, that would still have been top secret.”

“Probably even freakier.” At least Jack had been able to reassure his dad that this was more or less normal, for his life.

“This was freaky enough,” said Dad, taking another swig of bourbon. “Not to you, though.”

“After a while, freaky becomes normal.”

“Maybe for you. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised to see Santa flying around in his sleigh.”

Daniel replied, “I think Santa was inspired by commercialism and whimsy, not an alien, but you never know.”

“We haven’t met any talking snowmen, either,” said Jack. “That’d be kinda cool. Although… would starting a fire be considered assault with a deadly weapon?”

He’d meant to ask an honest question, but Dad chuckled like it was a joke. Oh, well. Considering they were all mourning, this Christmas had actually turned out well.

Of course, any day they thwarted a Goa’uld attempt to take over the world was a good day in Jack’s book. Destroying an entire Goa’uld fleet? Merry Christmas to Earth.


End file.
